Friday

Spyked

Facing what it calls "unfounded criticism" from pubic interest groups, Anheuser-Busch has killed its 'Spykes' product line, a gimmicky series of caffienated, cutely-flavored novelty malt liquors in nail-polish-sized bottles meant to 'enhance' your drinking of cheap beer, energy drinks, or whatever it is you swill when you're too young and trendy to get your hands on a decent bottle of Scotch. Never having tried the stuff, I can't say whether or not it's a major loss to the market, but I can't honestly say I'll mourn the fact that I'll never be able to pay three bucks for two ounces of hot chocolate-flavored Zima. While A-B blames the kerfuffle on frowny pressure groups, it's much more likely that no one was buying the "liquid lunchables". A New York Times article last month on Spykes suggested that if teen drinkers weren't abusing the stuff, it was because they couldn't find it; even one of the critics demanding the recall of the product had to visit nearly a dozen liquor stores before he found anyone selling it in the first place.